CHAPTER VII 

 THE MONGOLIAN PLATEAU 



JULY 15 saw us once more on the march. In 

 Kalgan we had met Mr. F. A. Larson of the 

 British and Foreign Bible Society, and he had 

 very kindly lent us a cart and four ponies, to- 

 gether with the services of one of his Mongol 

 servants, whom we called Wu Lama. This man 

 spoke Chinese and was to act as guide to our party 

 as far as Lama Miao, our objective. As our outfit 

 was rather heavy, we had to hire another cart for 

 the journey. 



We started rather late in the day, so that we 

 could only make T'u-ching-tzii that night. Our 

 road lay north by north-west from Kalgan up a 

 narrow valley, winding through the steep and rocky 

 hills, which form a fringe to the great Mongolian 

 Plateau. 



Next day, after continuing up the valley ten li 

 (3 miles) to its source, we began the difficult 

 climb up the famous Han-nor-pa pass, which 

 is one of the most rugged and hardest to 

 negotiate in all North China. It took us five 



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